Intelligence in Nature - Jeremy Narby [95]
so controversial to look for signs in the physical universe. Physical objects are what they are, and indeed one doesnât have to subscribe to metaphysical realism, essentialism, or any other cheap home-brewn laboratory idea of naturalism to see that it would be difficult for them to be something elseâ (p. 268). Kull (1998) writes: âFor instance, ribosomes in cells are functioning as translators when making new proteins, but they are themselves products of another translation process which synthesizes ribosomes. This makes evident that organisms are self-reading textsâ¦Semiosis, more shortly, could be defined as the appearance of a connection between things, which do not have a priori anything in common, in the sense that they do not interact or convert each other through direct physical or chemical processesâ¦This also means that there exist entities in the world (like âmeaningâ of signs) which can influence only living systems and not nonliving ones. Semiotic phenomena do not belong to physical realityâ (pp. 303â4). Sharov (1998) writes: âSign processes penetrate the entire body of an organism. The DNA molecule codes the sequence of amino acids in proteins, which in turn may be signals for various kinds of actions at a cell or organism level. Cells communicate with each other using signal molecules (hormones, mediators)â¦Living organisms have internal self-descriptions written in a DNA form. This description comes from previous generations and summarizes the experience of all ancestors in the art of surviving. Thus, an organism has a dual nature: it stands for itself and it is also a message sent from all previous generations to all future generations. This duality is the essential feature of life which makes biological evolution possible. Differential survival and reproduction of organisms is a semiotic process which incorporates the present into the future. Hoffmeyer characterizes life as survival in a coded form. Messages that provide better recipes for surviving are reproduced together with organisms, whereas messages with poor instructions disappear together with their bearers. Coding is based on conventionality. For example, the correspondence of DNA triplets to amino acids in proteins does not follow from any physical or chemical laws; it is a semiotic correspondenceâ (pp. 404â5). Witzany (1998) writes: âUnderstanding the language of nature (nucleic acid language) requires a molecular semiotics that analyses and interprets the molecular interaction processes as sign processes (semioses)â (p. 434).
Â
P. 137: GENETIC âCODEâ
Witzany (1998) writes: âThe genetic code which is fixed in DNA and read, copied, and translated in gene expression gains importance as a genetic text only if real sign-users are available to read, copy, and translate it into the amino acid language. This gene expression, along with all the related subprocesses, is neither mechanistic nor mysterious and vitalistic. Rather, it is the result of complex, regulated interactions and highly specific behavior coordination between numerous types of enzyme proteins. These enzymes clear the text for reading, implement the copying into the three types of RNA, search the text for superfluous text passages, cut these out, to a certain extent repair damaged sections using rougher and finer techniques (excision and postreplication repair), and complete the entire process of normal gene expression. All enzymatic protein individuals are themselves coded as genetic sequences, yet enzyme proteins themselves always clear genes for reading and thus ensure reproduction of all necessary enzyme proteinsâ (p. 433).
Â
P. 138: HUMAN âUNIQUENESSâ
Ingold (1994) writes: âThe human species is biologically unique. So is every other species on the face of the Earth. This uniqueness, as we have seen, does not consist in some one or more essential attributes that all individuals of the species have in common, and that no individuals of any other species possess. Rather it lies in the present composition of the total pool of genetic traits of which every individual of the species,